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University of Wisconsin students, faculty and community
members crowded the auditorium of the Pyle Center Monday to hear a professor
from Creighton University speak about biblical interpretation and
representation in popular American culture.

Leonard
Greenspoon’s lecture,”Interpreting the Word: Hope, Hype, and Habit in
Fifty Years of Biblical Studies,” was part of the Jewish Heritage Lecture Series sponsored by The Lubar Institute
for the Study of Abrahamic Religions and the UW Department of Hebrew and
Semitic Studies.

Greenspoon discussed the shifting teaching methods, analysis
of interpretation and the media’s portrayal of the Bible. He said scholars use
two approaches in biblical studies: the linear approach and the personal
approach.

“Today, we don’t have any experts in biblical studies, and
there really are none,” Greenspoon said.

The personal approach, which Greenspoon said he uses, deals
with an individual’s experience with the Bible, which can be both an advantage
and a disadvantage.

“From a pedagogical standpoint, the personal approach is
great because a teacher has to be personally invested in the material to really
bring insight into the classroom,” said Chris Jones, teaching assistant for an
introduction to Judaism course at UW.

The old way of teaching in biblical studies left little to
no discussion of what the text actually meant, Greenspoon said. Today, theology
is commonly discussed and challenged, resulting in different interpretations of
the Bible.

“I can’t remember ever sitting down to discuss what the text
actually meant,” Greenspoon said.

The translations Greenspoon addressed also focused on
individual relationships to the text, and he pointed to the secular approach of
a Hebrew studies scholar — Max Margoli — to translating the Old Testament,
which valorizes Judaism in biblical translation.

“There is some truth to [Margoli’s] claim because the Old
Testament was written to the Jewish people, but we are so far removed now, I
don’t believe that Jewish students and scholars have an advantage over others
in interpreting the text,” said UW sophomore Stephanie Christian, who is
currently taking courses in introductory biblical literature and Judaism.

The lecture also included the influence of new technology on
biblical translation.

“There is no question that technology has vastly increased
the ability to access ancient manuscripts, but researchers should never let
technology completely separate them from the parchment,” Greenspoon said.

Another theme of the lecture was the ways the mainstream
media portrays the Bible — specifically regarding tabloids — and Greenspoon
argued the marketing of Bible translations is nothing new.

“The mainstream media looks for sensational stories and
doesn’t consult experts, which often misinforms people,” Jones said.

Touching on the “hype” part of the lecture, Greenspoon said
those responsible for representations of biblical texts in pop culture
sometimes take their roles seriously whereas others do not, leaving it up to
the reader to look critically at these portrayals.

“When you look at any text, even a news article, personal
experiences affect how you read and interpret that story, so you can’t really
separate the personal from how you analyze that text,” Christian said.